ACT Legislation Reading Legislation

ABOUT THIS GUIDE

CONTENT

ABOUT THIS GUIDE

who this guide is for

what this guide covers

other pco guides

who to contact about this guide

STRUCTURE OF LAW

form and contents

structure

referring to PARTS, DIVISIONS ETC

WHAT IS (AND ISN’T) PART OF A LAW?

why this is important

Part of law—PREamble

part of law—Headings

part of law—Examples and diagrams

Part of law—Dictionary

part of law—Schedules

part of law—other things

not part of law—Notes

not part of law—Table of contents

not part of law—certain Section headings

more information

NAME OF LAW

long title

naming section

COMMENCEMENT

kinds of commencement

finding commencement information

OFFENCE PROVISIONS

overview

IDENTIFYING OFFENCE PROVISIONS

infringement notices

legislation act provisions about offences

more information

REGULATION-MAKING POWERS

what do regulations do?

GENERAL regulation-making POWERS

SPECIFIC regulation-making POWERS

Offences under regulations

TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS

what do transitional provisions do?

saving operation of repealed law

expiring transitional provisions

OTHER COMMON PROVISIONS

notification and review of decisions

Determination of fees

Approved Forms

INTERPRETATION—GENERAL

overview

read text of law

read text in context of law as whole

read law in context of legislative framework

Read law in context of non-legislative material

interpretation consistent with human rights

interpretation that best achieves purpose

more information

INTERPRETATION—DEFINITIONS

why are definitions used?

definitions apply subject to contrary intention

definitions in dictionaries and sections

Commonly-used terms in Legislation Act dictionary

different parts of speech and grammatical forms

finding definitions

kinds of definitions

INTERPRETATION—NON-LEGISLATIVE MATERIAL

when non-legislative material may be considered

What non-legislative material may be considered

INTERPRETATION AIDS—PERIODS OF TIME

Working out periods of time

periods of time ending on non-working days

doing things for which no time is fixed

power to extend time

continuing effect of obligations

INTERPRETATION AIDS—OTHER

Gender

number

MEANING OF MAY AND MUST

Age in years

Measurement of distance

changes in drafting practice do not affect meaning

FRAMEWORK LAW—LEGISLATION ACT

What the act is about

Public access to legislation

The 'life cycle' of legislation

Interpretation

other provisions commonly required

FRAMEWORK LAW—HUMAN RIGHTS ACT

what the act is about

human rights interpretation

limits on human rights

more information

FRAMEWORK LAW—CRIMINAL CODE

WHAT THE ACT is ABOUT

codified principles of criminal responsibility

what offences ch 2 applies to

substantive offences

LEGISLATION ACT DICTIONARY

CHECKLIST FOR READING LEGISLATION

ACT Legislation—Reading Legislation

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ABOUT THIS GUIDE

whothis guide isfor

This guide is for anyone who uses or wants to know about ACT Legislation. It sets out the material in a way that can be easily read and understood by people who have no previous knowledge of or experience with legislation, and it contains enough detail to be a useful reference for people who use legislation regularly.

what this guide covers

This guide deals with ACT legislation, covering the following topics:

Structure of law: its form and contents, typical structure and how to refer to different elements of a law
What is (and isn’t) part of a law: what are the different components of legislation, whether they are part of the law or not and why this is important
Common provisions: provisions that are common to legislation, including offences, regulationmaking powers and transitional provisions
Interpretation: principles, definitions, and other aids to interpretation
Legislative framework: other legislation that is important to know about when reading legislation
Checklist: to assist you to step through the exercise of reading and understanding legislation.

Table 1Abbreviations used in this guide

Term / Meaning
amending Act / an Act that makes amendments of a principal Act
amending regulation / a regulation that makes amendments of a principal regulation
Criminal Code (or Code) / Criminal Code 2002
Cwlth / Commonwealth of Australia
Financial Management Act / Financial Management Act 1996
Human Rights Act (or HRA) / Human Rights Act 2004
Legislation Act (or LA) / Legislation Act 2001
Legislation Register(or Register) / ACT Legislation Register[1]
Legislative Assembly (or Assembly) / Legislative Assembly for the ACT, established under the Self-Government Act, s 8 (1)
Parliamentary Counsel / ACT Parliamentary Counsel
PCO / ACT Parliamentary Counsel’s Office
principal Act / an Act that reflects the law on a particular subject
principal regulation / a regulation in force under a principal Act
Standing Orders (or SO) / Standing Orders and Continuing Resolutions of the Assembly (December 2016) (

other pco guides

ACTLegislation—Legislation Basics[2]

This guide sets out the basics about ACT legislation, for example, where the ACT derives its lawmaking power, what laws apply in the ACT and what are the different kinds of ACT legislation.

who to contact about this guide

Parliamentary Counsel’s Office6205 3700

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STRUCTURE OF LAW

form and contents

Acts and regulations have a table of contents. A quick glance through the contents should help you reach a good understanding of the structure of the legislation and find provisions of particular interest.

The section is the primary unit(or building block) of legislation—every piece of legislation will have at least 1section. Depending on the complexity of the section, it may be broken into the following:

Usually, legislation has more than 1 section. Groups of sections can be organised into parts.Parts may be broken into divisions and subdivisions, and chapters maybe used for particularly large and complex legislation. The following diagram shows the hierarchy ofgroupings of provisions:

structure

Acts and regulations follow a common structure—familiarise yourself with 1 Act or regulation and you will have a good sense of how to navigate another piece of legislation. The diagram on the following page sets out the typical structure of a law.

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Figure 1Typical structure of ACT law

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referring to PARTS, DIVISIONS ETC

A decimal numbering system is used in Acts and regulations. This means that all provisions have a unique reference and can be easily identified within the law. For example, part 3 of chapter 1 is referred to as part 1.3 and section 2 of schedule 1 is referred to as section 1.2.

Table 2Abbreviations of provision references

Reference / Abbreviation / Reference / Abbreviation
Chapter / ch / Paragraph / par
Part / pt / Subparagraph / subpar
Division / div / Subsubparagraph / subsubpar
Subdivision / subdiv / Schedule / sch
Section / s / Dictionary / dict
Subsection / refer to whole section (eg s 3(1)) / Definition / def

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WHAT IS (AND ISN’T) PART OF A LAW?

why this is important

Legislation is made up of a combination of material that is part of the law and material that is not part ofthe law.

The difference becomes important when interpreting the law, as greater weight will be given to material that is part of the law than material that is not. See ‘Read text in context of law as a whole’ on page 20.

Part of law—PREamble

A preamble to a law expresses the background to, or reasons for making, the law. If a law has a preamble, you will find it before the enacting words of the law.

Preambles are not common, usually reserved for landmark or unusual legislation.For example, the Human Rights Act includes a preamble explaining the importance of the rights of individuals, the need to balance those rights with those of other individuals, and the ability to place reasonable limits that can be justified in a free and democratic society.

A preamble to a law is part of the law (see LA, s 126 (3)).

part of law—Headings

Headings to the various provisions of a law (chapters, schedules, sections etc)give you a general indication of the contents of the provisions.

A heading to a chapter, part, division, subdivision, or other provision of a law is part of the law (see LA, s126 (1)).

A heading to a section of a law is part of the law, but only if either of the following apply:

the law was made after 1 January 2000
the section heading has been amended or inserted after 1 January 2000.

(See LA, s 126 (2))

part of law—Examples and diagrams

You will find examples used throughout legislation. An example provides a helpful illustration of theprovision that it relates to.

Common uses of examples in legislation include:

setting out a specific case (which may be fictional) that helps give meaning to the more abstract language of a provision
giving an example (which may be fictional) that clarifies the scope of a provision by illustrating cases that fall within, or outside, the provision.

An example used in a law is not exhaustive—it may extend the meaning of the law, but it does not limit its meaning (see LA, s 132).

Diagrams are used to provide a visual illustration of a provision. For example, road rules legislation includes diagrams of traffic control signs.

Examples and diagrams in a law arepart of the law (see LA, s 126 (4)).

Part of law—Dictionary

There is a dictionary in most principal Acts and regulations which sets out the meanings of the terms used in the law for which a particular definition applies.

If the law has a dictionary, a dictionary provision towards the beginning of the law (usually section 3) helps raise awareness that the dictionary at the end of the law is part of the law.

The dictionary to a law is part of the law (see LA, s 126 (5)).

part of law—Schedules

Sometimes, it is helpful to include some details of a law in a schedule to improve the readability of the law.

The kind of material in schedules is broad, includingmaterial that lends itself to being set out in a table or long list,template wording (such as the wording of an oathor affirmation), or detail that is more helpfully separated into an easy to find schedule (such as the Territory privacy principles under the Information Privacy Act 2014).

A schedule to a law is part of the law (see LA, s 126(5)).

part of law—other things

Punctuation and provision numbers in a law are part of the law (see LA, s 126 (6) and (7)).

not part of law—Notes

Notes are often used to give extra information about a provision and to help the reader understand the relationship of the provision to other provisions. In the case of endnotes, those notes give you information about the history of the law.

Legislation containing notes will have a notes section towards the front of the Act (usually around section5),which helps raise awareness that notes are for information only.

Notes in legislation are not part of the law (see LA, s 127 (1)).

not part of law—Table of contents

The table of contents gives you a quick reference guide to the law. It is not part of the law (see LA,s127(2)).

not part of law—certain Section headings

A heading to a section of a law is not part of the law if both of the following apply:

the law was made on or before 1 January 2000
the section heading has not been amended or inserted after that date.

(See LA, s 127 (3))

more information

The following provisions of the Legislation Act are the source of this information:
section 126 (Material that is part of Act or statutory instrument)
section 127 (Material that is not part of Act or statutory instrument).
For information about how material that is and isn’t part of a law is considered when interpreting the law, see ‘Interpretation—non-legislative material’ on page 28.

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NAME OF LAW

long title

All Acts have a long title. The long title is set out on page 1, immediatelyafter the table of contents.The long title briefly describes what the Act is about, and usually begins ‘An Act about…’ . Regulations do not have a long title.

As well as providing useful information to the reader, it may be used as an aid to the interpretation of an Act and plays an important role in the debate of a bill (see SO 169).When the bill is read for the first time, it is the long title only that is read (seeSO 168 (b)), and debate of the bill is confined to what is covered by the long title. Forexample, the debate of a bill with the long title ‘An Act about the supply of liquor’ could not extend to the production of liquor.

naming section

Each Act, regulation and other legislative instrument is given a unique identifying name and number.

The name of a law reflects its subject matter and the year it was made. It also provides a convenient way of referring to the law, and is what you should use when citing theAct, regulation or other legislative instrument.

The name of a piece of legislation is set out in its naming section. The name of legislation used to be called the citation or short title. The naming section is always the first section of a law.

The name of a regulation usually follows the name of the Act under which it is made. If 2 or more regulations are made under 1 Act, the name of each regulation will reflect the subject matter of the regulation, as well as follow (as far as practicable) the name of the Act. An example is thevarious infringement notice regulations made under the Magistrates Court Act 1930.

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COMMENCEMENT

kinds of commencement

Each Act and regulation, and most other laws, will include a provision about when the law commences. There are a number of different ways that a law can commence:

Standard commencement:A law often commences on the day after itis notified on the Legislation Register (its notification day). This is the default commencement that applies (see LA,s 73), although it is usually stated in the law for clarity.
Commencement on a stated day or event:Alaw may state another time or day when itcommences. For example, it may state that it commences ona particular day, after a stated period of time or on a particular event occurring (eg the commencement of another law).
Commencement by commencement notice: A law may state that it commences ‘on a day fixed by the Minister by written notice’. In this case, the law commences on a day stated in a commencement notice signed by the Minister and notified on the Legislation Register. However, if the Minister does not fix a commencement day that is within 6 months after the law’s notification day, the law automatically commences at the end of that 6-month period (see LA, s79).
Split commencement: It may be important for different parts of a law to commence at different times. In that case, the law has a split commencement—that is,the commencement provision sets out different commencements (which may be different kinds of commencement) for different provisions of the law. For example, the commencement may provide for the law, other than part2,to commence on the day after its notification day, and provide for part 2 to commence on a day fixed by the Minister by written notice.
Retrospective commencement:Legislation usually commences after its notification day. However, sometimes it is important for a law to commence before it is notified—that is, it commences retrospectively. If a law commences retrospectively this is clearly expressed, usually in the form ‘This Act/regulation is taken to have commenced on...’.

finding commencement information

If you are trying to find out when a lawcommenced, there are a number of ways you can do this:

You can look at thecommencement section of the law. A commencement section is removed from a law (repealed) once all of the provisions of the law have commenced, so it is best to look at the first version of the law for that section (see LA, s 89 (4)).
If there is acommencement notice for the law, you can look at that notice. You can find commencement notices on the Legislation Register.
You can look at the endnotes for the law—located at the end of the law. Endnote 3 sets out the legislative history of the law, and the first entry will tell you when the law commenced.

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OFFENCE PROVISIONS

overview

Offence provisions are common in legislation, ranging from offences for the most serious violent and antisocial behaviour to regulatory offences to enforce compliance with legislative requirements. In the ACT, principles of criminal responsibility are dealt with under the Criminal Code. For more information about the Code, see‘Framework law—Criminal Code’ on page 42.

IDENTIFYING OFFENCE PROVISIONS

Sometimes you can identify an offence provision from the way it is expressed. For example, the heading may state it is an offence or the provision may open with the words ‘A person commits an offence if...’.

However, it is not necessary for a provision to expressly state it is an offence if a penalty is stated to apply to the provision (see LA, s 134). This is usually expressed as the ‘maximum penalty’ for the offence, being a number of penalty units, a term of imprisonment, or both. The maximum penalty is usually expressed at the end of the provision that creates the offence.

infringement notices

Some offences may be enforced by way of infringement notices (on-the-spot fines). This is an alternative to prosecuting someone for the offence.